The Reasons Why We Fight
by Alazian
Summary: Why do some people choose to fight? To protect the ones they love? For the sake of money? Or maybe just to survive? If you asked Rica Sicarius, she would have answered "Revenge". But now that she has gotten revenge, she has nothing left in her life to live for. Join her as she makes it into Beacon in search for a reason to continue fighting.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Here I was, sitting in an uncomfortable chair while police officers watched my every move. 'Officers of the Law' they liked to call themselves. I personally think that 'Mighty Pains in the Ass' was a much more suitable name for them. Not that it mattered anymore, I was going to become a prisoner for what may be the rest of my life and nothing was going to change that. Funny thing is, I could have escaped easily if I had wanted to. As it was however, I didn't care what happened to me. After what happened last night, I no longer had anything worth living for. The one thing that had kept me fighting for the past few years was now gone and I now lived with no reason for doing so.

Of course, it seemed that life just loved to screw with me as much as possible. I guess that's why some people like to say, 'Life's a bitch', cause I can definitely say that they aren't joking. My fox ears perked up as I heard the door opening to reveal an old man, accompanied by a slightly younger woman. "Great, two more people who wish to have a 'talk' with me about last night." I say as the old man seated himself on the chair opposing mine. He seemed to be studying me as we sat there, face to face.

"How amusing that you think I am here to interrogate you." He replied calmly.

I raised an eyebrow at his response before replying, "Oh, am I wrong in assuming that? Cause I can tell you right now that I wasn't wrong with the other four people who came in for a 'chat'."

"Well, my apologies for disappointing you, but I am not here to question you for your actions. Instead I would like to offer you a chance to escape this troublesome life and continue fighting."

I didn't even wait for him to elaborate before I gave him my answer. "Not interested. I have already fulfilled my purpose for fighting, I don't care what happens to me anymore."

"Oh, is that so? You kill some lowly thugs and all of a sudden you're happy to throw your away?"

I snapped at those words. "I got revenge by killing the bastards who took my brother's life! He was the only thing I had in my life and they murdered him! I made them suffer for what they did to me!"

The woman standing next to him just sighed before remarking, "What a shame that a child would be so foolish as to throw her skills and future away, all for the sake of some petty revenge."

"Piss off lady! If all you're going to do is launch lecture after lecture at me, then do me a favour and kill me now. It would save me from a massive headache."

The man decided to interrupt our rather short argument. "Then allow me to put it a way that may appeal to you. Would you rather die of old age, in a prison cell, or fighting with weapon in hand?"

"Doesn't bother me, but I guess if I had to choose one, I would go with the last option." I suspected that was the exact answer he was waiting for, so I decided to speed the progress and let him get to the point so I could refuse his offer quicker.

"My name is Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, a school designed to train students for the sole purpose of defending humans and faunus from the monsters known as Grimm. I am already well aware that you won't care at all for defending others against these creatures, but I am fairly certain that killing monsters is better than living the rest of your life behind bars."

I had to admit that he knew how to make his proposition sound more appealing than I would have expected. I actually began to think about his offer. I suppose passing away with my weapons in hand would be a slightly more satisfying way to die, and it wasn't as if my other two options would put my life to an end anytime soon. Before I came to my decision however, I had to question him on one thing. "Why would you even bother offering me this?"

"Simple. While most people would only see a criminal act, I see potential. You could turn your life around by accepting my offer, and who knows, you might even manage to find a reason to fight again."

I sighed deeply as I gathered my words. 'Damn, damn, damn, damn, dammit! He had the outcome completely planned before he even walked through the doors. Atleast I now know that I'm not walking into an unknown future because of the words of a complete idiot.' I thought before speaking. "Fine I'll attend this school of yours, just don't be disappointed if whatever you have planned for me doesn't turn out like you hoped." He seemed pleased with my answer which I guess was reasonable, seeing as he was the one to make the offer in the first place.

"I am pleased to welcome you as a student of Beacon, Rica Sicarius."

As I got up from my chair, ready to leave the police station, a thought came to mind. "By the way, a quick question. How the hell do you plan to convince these mighty pains in my ass that locked me in here, to release me into your custody?" I asked, referring to the police.

I saw an almost sly grin come from Ozpin before he answered. "Oh, I wouldn't be concerned about that minor issue, I have my methods."

I smirked at his answer before responding with, "Good luck with those methods of yours. I doubt you'll succeed. If you pushed the sticks up their asses any further up, the sticks would probably be sticking out their throats." Before I knew it, a cane was flying straight towards my wrist and hit me with a solid smack. 'OW! MOTHER F*****!' were the first thoughts that came into my mind, along with a few others that leaned more on the homicidal and slightly gory side.

"Such language will not be tolerated while at Beacon, young lady."

"Hey I'm only a student at your school if you can manage to convince them to let me out and I don't see that ever happening anytime soon."

Ozpin decided to interrupt us yet again. I swear that was going to become a running gag between us. "Then I guess I just have to prove you wrong then, though please try to have some faith in me. After all, I managed to convince you to join Beacon, am I wrong?"

"Fair point, but I'm still not getting my hopes up."

'The son of a bitch pulled it off. He actually pulled it off. DAMMIT!' Here I was, inside an airship flying me towards this prestigious academy of his. I positioned myself at one of the corners of the airship where I could see everything, yet hardly anyone would even take notice of me.

My dark green eyes scoped the area, reacting to every movement that the other students made. A slight annoyance that came with having fox traits. My eyes were always reacting to movements, especially if it was from my peripheral vision. Being near crowds of people usually insured that I would quickly get dizzy. One of many reasons I preferred to stick to my own company and no one else.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that I was now on my way to an unknown future that I couldn't even begin to predict. As these thoughts crossed my mind, I began to slowly play around with my bright orange hair while it was tied in a ponytail that reached the back of my neck. I would never tell anyone but I had to admit that I was feeling slightly nervous about what might transpire while I was at the school.

* * *

_Author's Note- So that was the prologue, explaining how Rica got into Beacon. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and are looking forward to more. Also, if you have any OCs of your own that you would like to see in this story, as a part of Rica's team, then feel free to leave a review/PM with your suggestion. Apart from that, I would love to hear what you think of the prologue and any constructive criticism you may have._


	2. Chapter 1

_Author's Note- So here is the first official chapter of my story and before we begin, I would just like to give everyone who reviewed and sent me a PM, a huge thanks. I was given so many different and awesome ideas and characters, and it was really hard to only choose three of them to be a part of Rica's team. The OC's that made it into Rica's team will be making an appearance next chapter. To anyone who's OCs didn't make it, I'm really sorry but there were just so many entries that I had to leave quite a lot of them out. A few other OCs will make appearances later on in the story, but they won't be appearing for a while yet. Anyways I hope you enjoy the chapter and thank you to everyone who chipped in with their ideas and provided support._

Chapter 1

And so here I was, stepping off the airship and staring at what could easily be called, the largest damn structure I had ever seen in my life. Not that big of a statement, considering I lived off the streets for my whole life, but still, who the hell would want to go into that much detail building a school of all things? Ah well, at least it's a nice change of scenery compared to my own home.

But I didn't come here to admire the scenery, I came here to find a reason to continue fighting again. What that reason would be though, I didn't have a clue. I began to make my way towards the main halls where everyone else seemed to be going. As I followed the crowd of people I saw them all looking around the place in wonder. Was this place really such a huge deal that people were gawking at empty halls? While everyone else wondered around like a bunch of half brained monkeys, I heard something from behind us. _'Was that an explosion?'_ I thought. _'I know this is a school that trains people to kill monsters but seriously, do people really need to start blowing shit up the minute they get here?'_

I ignored it however and continued to follow those brain dead monkeys as they finally decided to stop staring into space and began walking to wherever we were supposed to be going. My eyes quickly darted to a blonde girl, who seemed to be slowing her pace down significantly. 'Please just let me pass by. Don't let her be one of those chatty types that thinks everyone wants to listen to her babbling all day long.'

"Pretty cool to be here isn't it?"

_'Please kill me.'_

"Makes you wonder how they made it."

_'With a lot of people and a fuck ton of money, maybe?'_

"You really aren't that talkative, are you?"

_'Actually, I can be very talkative. You are just annoying me to no end.'_ I swore that if she didn't shut up and leave me alone, I was going to potentially commit suicide.

"How about I start then. I'm Yang, it's nice to meet you." Yang said holding out her hand.

"Rica," I replied. _'If I try to get along with this girl for now, it might make her leave me alone.'_ I thought, shaking her hand.

"So how did you end up at Beacon?"

_'Oh, you know. I only killed a bunch of people, got arrested by assholes, talked to an old man and a bitchy lady and voila, here I am. Nothing special.'_

"Hello? Anyone home?" Yang said waving her hand infront of my face, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"No I'm not home. If this was my home, then I would probably be the richest person alive."

Yang burst out in laughter for some reason. "Wow, that was great!"

_'Wasn't that funny, but it was ok. Wait, I just made her laugh. And now she's probably going to stick around me even longer... Fuck my life.'_

I heard another group calling out to Yang from in front of me. "Oh, looks like my other friends want me. We should meet up later though. Bye!" She ran off towards the other idiots, finally leaving me alone.

_'One sentence Rica, one crappy little joke and now you've just given yourself a permanent headache. Freaking genius!' I thought to myself as I continued to follow behind the group._

After a few more more minutes of watching the braindead monkeys wander around aimlessly, we finally managed to reach the assembly hall. I left the group and made my way to a corner so I could watch everything going on and hopefully not be noticed. Slowly, more and more students began to enter the assembly hall before Ozpin began to start talking at the front of a big stage.

"Ahem, I'll keep this brief."

_'Highly doubt that.'_ I thought.

"You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills."

_'No, I travelled here today in search for a reason to keep living and you are doing a shit job at giving me that reason.'_

"And when you finish, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

_'You forgot about me being a cold blooded murderer, didn't you?'_

"But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy."

_'So the whole 'While most people would only see a criminal act, I see potential.' talk, was just you talking a load of shit? Thanks, really appreciate it.'_

"In need of purpose, direction."

_'Ok, I can't argue with that.'_

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove to you that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

_'Off a cliff, I suspect.'_

As I was thinking of more smart-ass comments for everything he said, he began to walk off stage, only to be replaced by the lady who had accompanied him back when I was in prison. _'Well look who just had to show up and ruin my life even more.'_

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready, you are dismissed." She announced, before also leaving the stage.

_'Hey, she actually kept it brief, what a miracle.'_

After the meeting, everyone had slowly left the assembly hall and gathered in the ballroom, where we would be sleeping for the night. Everyone here were all lucky to have something they could wear, to sleep comfortably, while I looked at my attire, only to see I was the only one who seemed to still be in my normal clothing. An old, filthy t-shirt and a pair of saggy pants that had the appearance of having more holes than actual cloth. Yet it never really bothered me. I felt more comfortable with my ragged old clothing instead of some fancy nightgown, it reminded me of my life before I came here. Even the beds we were provided with seemed too luxurious for me to sleep in, even though they were more than likely second hand mattresses. I guess it's difficult to get used to such comfort when you've been accustomed to sleeping on the cold, hard, concrete floor for so many years. I sighed as I lied in the bed, thinking back to my old life. I kept wondering to myself, what the point was to even come here. I was probably going to die here anyway, facing some gruesome beast that I knew nothing about. So why come here when I could simply life my life in prison and eventually die, peacefully, of old age?

_'Because what use would there be for you to just stay there and wait for your own death? At least this way, you may be able to find a reason for living again.'_

_'So I should just spend my life killing creatures for what they were bred to do?'_ It seemed more like a chore than anything else. But I had already chosen this path for myself and now I had to stick with it, no matter how much time I spent second guessing myself about it. With these thoughts in mind, I succumbed to sleep.

* * *

It was the start of a new day and, for me, a new life. We were all sent to our allocated lockers where our weapons and equipment were stored. For me, it was just my weapons, which I quickly sheathed and began to make my way outside of the academy, where we were to meet with Ozpin and the bitchy lady that I had learned was named Glynda Goodwitch. We were all placed onto platforms, before Ozpin finally explained what we would be doing.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors"

_'Nope.'_

"And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest"

_'Joy of joys.'_

Glynda began to continue the explanation. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams."

_'Not really, but I didn't care to listen out for such things.'_

Well, allow us to put an end your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today."

_'Never saw that one coming'_ I thought sarcastically.

It was now Ozpin's turn to start talking again. "These teammates will be with you you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

_'So, basically no one.'_

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!" I heard a young girl at the other end of the line yell. I smirked a bit at the girl's reaction. In my opinion, the method actually solved all my problems. _'So the first person I see is going to be screwed. I almost feel sorry for whoever that poor bastard is.'_

The rest of the explanation could basically be summed up in a simple sentence. 'Head north, find temple and get relic, kill or be killed.' Simple and straight to the point. As the explanation was ended, I began to hear creaking coming from the platforms we were on. I looked down to see that they had some form of mechanism on them. I looked up at Ozpin, only to see him with a small smirk on his face while he drank his coffee.

_'Ozpin, you didn't.'_ I thought, even though I already knew the answer. As the creaking increased I began to think, _'This is a really bad time to be afraid of heights, isn't it?'_ I knew my platform was about to launch me and just before I was sent flying, I began to say, "Ozpin, you son of a..."

I was launched into the air at a rapid speed.

"BITCH!"


	3. Chapter 2

_Author's Note- So here's chapter 2 and even though I said I would be introducing the three OCs for Rica's team, I decided to make the initiation two chapters instead of one, so only Rica's partner will be introduced this chapter. I promise that the rest of Rica's team will be introduced next chapter. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and tell me what you think of it._

Chapter 2

Here I was, flying through the air and swearing that I was going to fucking kill Ozpin for this. Been launched high in the sky was definitely not helped by my one and only fear. Heights. Let's just say that I learned from a young age, that falling off of a skyscraper was a very bad and frightening experience. An experience that I still hadn't managed to come to terms with eleven years later. There was a reason why I kept to living in small towns, full of short buildings. And now I was getting launched high in the sky, feeling sick extremely quickly.

_'Focus Rica! If you don't, you won't just be sick, you'll be a great big splotch of blood on the forest floor!'_ I momentarily snapped out of my fright and began to examine the forest below me. I was falling straight towards a branch, hanging to the side of a tree. As I fell towards the branch, I stretched my arms out and grabbed onto the branch, feeling my momentum quickly dissipate. As I felt relief at having stopped myself from becoming a blood spatter, the relief was quickly abandoned as I felt the branch begin to crack under the pressure of my weight and the momentum of which I swung off it from. As I was in mid swing, the branch snapped off the tree and launched me directly at a nearby tree, which I smashed into quite roughly, before crashing onto the forest ground.

I landed on my back and immediately began gasping for air as I clutched my sides, out of pain. 'That really fucking hurt.' I thought as I lied there on the hard ground. 'Atleast I didn't die due to some stupid childhood fear of mine.' I slowly managed to roll over and get onto my hands and knees, feeling comfort at the touch of solid ground. Then I immediately puked my guts out. _'Fucking heights! Fucking trees! Fucking Ozpin! Fucking stupid decision to come to Beacon!'_

After I finished vomiting, I began to get up onto my feet and started walking through the forest, while thinking of creative ways to murder Ozpin and brushing off any dirt or grass that managed to get into my fluffy fox tail. It's amazing, the amount of creative ideas on how to kill someone, you could come up with within an hour. After spending that hour, lost in my thoughts, I heard snarling and growling nearby. I quickly unsheathed my weapons and began to listen for the direction of the sound.

My weapons were honestly as simple as a pair of combat knives. Combat knives that could turn into silenced pistols, but simple nonetheless.

Oddly enough though, I couldn't see anything appearing from where the sounds were coming from. Cautiously, I decided to find out what was nearby.

I activated my semblance, turning myself invisible, and heading towards the sounds of growls and snarls. As it turned out, the noises were actually coming from a group of around a dozen black, wolf-like creatures. _'How intimidating'_ I thought with my typical sarcasm, as they began charging towards something that was currently blocked from sight, thanks to the hundreds of fucking trees in this forest. I looked around, to see that the creatures were actually attacking another person, presumably a student.

I couldn't get a good look at their face because of their hoodie, but they wore a white, long coat. Under it was what looked like a white, button-up shirt with a chest pocket that had an emblem of some sort, printed. The emblem seemed to be a picture of a white wing. They also wore black, straight cut jeans and a metallic gauntlet covering their left arm. However what caught my eyes' attention the most was the shiny, black, slightly curved blade that they were now wielding in their right hand.

As the first creature approached the figure, they simply side stepped to their right and swung the blade in an arc, effectively cleaving the creature's head off. 'Well at least it's sharp.' The next two creatures were quickly dealt with as they leaped at the stranger, from opposing sides. The stranger turned to the wolf-like creature coming from is left and thrust their sword cleanly into it's heart. As the other creature tried to claw at the student, they pulled the sword out of the now dead creature's chest and, in the same motion, swung the blade across the attacking creature's stomach.

I probably should have gone and helped the student fight off the wolfies but, I had to admit that watching the person fight the threats off was kind of entertaining. Soon he was only down to one more wolfy standing, except this one looked different from the others. This one had a bony, white mask on its face and looked much bulkier than the others. _'Looks like it's my time to ruin his fun.'_ I thought as I gripped my knives and ran behind the creature, while invisible. A quick stab into the back of its neck and down it went, crashing to the ground, dead.

I was still invisible, so the person who had been fighting the creatures was now looking at the dead body, confused. I probably should have deactivated my semblance at that moment, but I thought it would be amusing to frighten the poor student. As the student began to spin around in a circle, searching for the person who killed the larger wolfy, I slowly snuck up to him and when he turned his back on me, deactivated my semblance.

"Try looking behind you next time" I said with a sly grin, watching the person potentially shit themselves. The person spun around to see my face, grinning at them. Now that I could look them in the eyes, I saw that my new partner for the next four years was a male with spiky, white hair and dark blue eyes. He also had a scar, just above his left eye.

_'I guess I could have run into worse, at least he knows how to fight well enough.'_ I thought as I examined him. He looked to be doing the same, except he seemed to continue looking slightly above my head. _'Of course the first thing that catches his eyes are my fox ears. One racist comment and I'm giving his balls a good kicking.'_ However, it seemed to be unnecessary as he casually nodded at my ears and began to speak.

"Looks like we're partners."

_'No shit, really? Unless you saw someone else and just decided to run the fuck away from them, I'm pretty sure that makes us partners. Bloody Genius!'_

"My name's Drake." He said, holding out his hand.

"Rica" I replied, grabbing his hand and shaking it. The handshake didn't mean anything to me, but if I was going to have to deal with him for the next four years, then getting on one another's bad side immediately after meeting probably wouldn't help. After shaking each other's hands, we began to continue making our way North.

After a few minutes of walking, I began to feel something brush up against my faunus ears. I quickly turned, knife in hand to see Drake's hand outstretched. He must have tried to pet my fox ears while my back was turned.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. It's just a bad habit I have, of touching a faunus' animal ears"

'_Great, so I've just been partnered with someone who has a fetish for animal ears.' _As I had that thought, a cruel idea came to my mind.

"I'll let it go this time, but you should probably know that petting a faunus' ears usually means you want to have sex with them."

What I just said was all a complete and utter load of shit, but the look I saw on his mortified face… Fucking priceless.


	4. Chapter 3

_Author's Note- Sorry that this chapter took so long. A mixture of work and a family reunion kept me from writing for a considerate amount of time. But anyways, Rica's time in the forest will finally be concluded. The other two members have been introduced, but not gone into proper detail yet. Expect that at the start of the next chapter. I did kinda rush to finish this so I'm sorry if that impression comes across while reading it. I hope you enjoy this chapter though and feel free to give me your opinion._

* * *

Chapter 3

Here we were, at the forest temple, or what was left of it. Drake quickly walked towards the ruins and began to inspect these so called relics we were supposed to be collecting. We didn't really talk much on the way, I guess he was still a bit grumpy about that joke I made about petting a faunus' ears. I'll admit it was a cruel joke, but the look on his face was so damn hilarious. I had tried to keep a straight face when I told him but I couldn't stop myself from laughing at his reaction.

On the way here, we only got attacked five times and had to run from a giant fucking two-headed snake, but other than that it was just a peaceful walk through this beautiful forest. _'I wonder, is that snake is still after us?'_ I thought to myself.

Just a few seconds afterwards, I heard the crashing and tumbling of trees. _'Well, that answers my question.'_ I quickly ran towards Drake, took a random piece and rushed past while shouting to my partner, "Unless getting eaten by a snake is what you want, stop standing there and run!" Drake looked behind him to see the massive creature burst through the forest and out into the clearing and began to run as quickly as possible.

"We are probably going to have to fight that thing later anyway, so we may as well start now while we still have some energy left." Drake said as we kept running.

"Are you fucking stupid? Sorry if becoming the first ever fox souffle isn't what I had planned when I enrolled here."

And right the fuck out of nowhere, a woman burst out of the forest, wielding a weapon that could be best described as a metal plank with giant spikes covering the sides of it. As I was thinking about how bad a weapon like that was, she jumped face first at the giant snake.

_'Well, she's about to get eaten. Nice not knowing you, random person!' I thought to myself._

All of a sudden, the spikes on her idiotic weapon began to spin at a rapid rate, making it act more as a chainsaw. _'How the hell does that even fucking work?!'_ I knew my weapons weren't the greatest example when it came to logic, but her weapon made mine look ordinary. She swung her logicless weapon at the giant snake creature and whacked it over the head, as the spikes on her weapon tried to grind through it's scales. For something that gave the appearance of being able to saw through anything, it only managed to give the creature a small scratch. Yet while she attacked the black headed creature, it's white counterpart decided to strike, knocking her weapon away and sending her rolling across the grassy ground. _'Good job, you made it slightly less shiny. Ah well, at least she didn't crash into a tree.'_ As Drake and I watched the girl get back onto her feet, we noticed the black snake poised to attack. _'She's fucked.'_ I thought to myself. _'And this is why you run AWAY from giant two headed snakes, not charge towards it and practically scream, "Have a free snack!" At least I get to see someone get eaten that isn't me.'_

"So, how's that whole 'We should probably fight while we still can' bullshit wor…" I said while turning my attention to Drake, only to see that he wasn't there anymore. "...king out for you." I quickly looked around to see that where Drake had vanished off to, only to see him helping the suicidal girl against the snake. I briefly considered leaving the two and running but I realised that I was supposed to deliver the relic with my partner. In other words, the asshole with an ear fetish had just forced me into a pointless fight.

I sighed to myself as I quickly unsheathed my weapons, which were both currently in knife form, and yelled at my partner while running into battle, "Once I save your ass and get you back to the academy, I'm putting a knife in your neck!"

As I rushed towards the creature, the black head saw me and lunged at me. I quickly jumped over it's attack and landed on it's body, while stabbing my knives into it. The daggers only managed to deflect off the thing's scales. _'Well that did so much damage, we might be able to get rid of a scale in only a couple of years!'_ As I had that thought, I switched my weapons into their pistol form and began to run along its long, winding body, while trying to put bullet after bullet into it. As I reached the other end of the creature, I jumped off of it and had a look to see if I did any damage. _'Ooh, it's slightly less shiny. Yay!'_ As I had that sarcastic thought, the white head decided that now would be a great time for it to strike at me. _'Well shit.'_ I thought, as I closed my eyes and waited waited for the inevitable strike to end my life.

Except, instead of feeling the creature's fangs get injected into me, I felt someone wrap their arms around me and tackle me to the side. As our bodies hit the ground, I opened my eyes and saw Drake with his arms around me. I looked at him confusedly as I was certain that he was at the other end of the snake when I was attacked. It didn't make sense for him to have been close enough to save me.

My question was soon answered, when he released me and got up, off the ground. All of a sudden he was already back in range to start attacking the snake with his blade again, then in an instant he was on the other side of the snake. He was a blur and almost impossible to keep track of. However I was able to barely follow his movements, thanks to my fox eyes. _'So, he has the semblance of speed. That actually explains a lot... and it gives me an idea.'_

"Hey Drake, the only way we're going to get out of this is if someone distracts the thing!" I shouted. Drake nodded his head in acknowledgement and began to wave his arms in front of the black head. As the black half of the creature began to give chase, the white half flicked its head up in time for me to see that the suicidal girl was on top of its head. However, she was tossed high in the air by the sudden movement and I got to watch her fly.

I heard movement from the bushes behind me and turned around in time to see another student run out. He was a male but something that got my curiosity flowing was the fact that his arms and legs were all robotic "Have you seen my partner around here?"

"Does she have a chainsaw-plank?"

"Yeah that's her."

My eyes quickly darted up in the air to see his partner descending down upon us. I took a quick step back and started smirking at him and then pointed up. He looked up in time for the girl to land on him. I started laughing my ass off.

"Get the hint."

The girl sat up and rubbed her head. "Where did the snake go?" She asked looking around.

I began looking around as well, only to see that Drake and the snake had gone missing. "Hmm, well shit. My plan actually worked." Things were actually working out for once. While the snake was busy killing Drake, me and the other two students could get to the objectives. "Get your relic and get moving."

I turned and ran back into the forest, hopefully in the opposite direction to the snake.

-Ten minutes later-

After ten minutes of hard running, the two partners and I were now back on top of the cliff and were handing in our relics. As we gave our relics to Ozpin, I finally noticed that they were actually chess pieces. "Rica, would you like to inform us of your partner's whereabouts?" Ozpin asked as I gave him a white pawn piece.

"He's probably being digested by now." I replied with a shrug.

"You were supposed to back me up!" I heard a familiar voice, coming from the forest.

"No, I told you to distract it, I never said anything about backing you up!" I shouted in the direction of Drake's voice. I turned back to Ozpin, "Ok, give it five more minutes. He will eventually tire himself out. Then the snake can eat him."

I heard Drake yelling out again. "But I saved you from the snake before!"

I turned my attention back to the forest. "And you will always be remembered for your noble sacrifice!" _'So I was actually right when I said that the first person I saw was screwed. I actually do feel sorry for Drake.'_ I thought.

I decided to watch Drake running away from the snake, I was curious to see how much longer he could last. However, my hopes of seeing someone get eaten by a snake were unfortunately unanswered as Drake eventually ran on top of the white snake's head, only to get flung high in the air. Luckily, for him, he managed to land at the top of the cliff. "See, all part of my plan." I said with a massive grin on my face.

"You. Are. A…"

"Bitch? Whore? Asshole? All of the above? Yep!" I replied, still grinning. "Sorry but you really did get the shortest possible end of the stick when it comes to partners."

After giving me an angered look on his face, he quickly passed out from exhaustion, leaving the other two to carry him back to the academy. _'Well so much for trying not to piss off my partner.'_


	5. Chapter 4

_Author's Note- So here's chapter four, where you get to see to last two team members of Rica's team properly introduced, the team name, and some LOVELY development in Rica's and Drake's partnership. Also, congratulations to Vulkodlak for Xochi, D.C Draco for Drake, and Sentient Pixel for Gael. I really enjoyed your OCs and they are now apart of this story and Rica's team. However I would really appreciate it if you could send me some general likes and dislikes for your respective characters. It will just make it easier for me to write them. Also there will be some other OC's that were sent by others that will eventually make their way into the story, but they wont appear for a while. Anyways, enjoy the chapter and have a great day/night._

* * *

Chapter 4

And here I was, standing to the side of the stage, that Ozpin was making his opening speech on.

"We are gathered here today to congratulate these students for passing initiation, and proving that they have what it takes to become huntsmen and huntresses in the years to come."

'_What? By running away from a giant fucking snake? Yep, true huntress potential there.'_

"May the following students please step forward. Rica Sicarius, Drake Knight, Xochi Nasake, and Gael Renato." Drake and I stepped onto the stage to see that our teammates were coincidentally the same people who we helped against that giant snake. Though now that we weren't busy running around like lunatics, I actually got a chance to have a reasonable look at my new teammates.

Xochi, the suicidal girl with the completely illogical chainsaw plank, was honestly pretty fucking tall. I noted that she had broad shoulders, yet oddly enough everything else about her was actually shaped quite long and lean. Even her face seemed to be more angular then normal. Her eyes were a dark orange colour and also followed the current pattern that I was noticing. Her hair however was black, short and all over the damn place. It actually looked like she used her own bloody weapon to cut her hair. She wore a baggy pair of jeans that could have looked like my own if they weren't actually patched up with pieces of armour, and… '_A poncho? Who the fuck wears a poncho to battle?!'_ I yelled in my head. I already knew she had issues when it came to logic, just from her weapon alone, but seriously. '_What. The. Fuck. Is wrong with this girl?'_ I sighed inwardly as I thought to myself, '_Great, so my team is already consisting of a cold blooded murderer (me), an asshole with a fetish for ears, and a crazy bitch who wears a poncho to battle! A FUCKING PONCHO!'_ I was never going understand this girl's dressing habits. '_And great, this guy has robotic arms and legs. Murderer, Fetish Boy, Suicidal, and Robot Boy. I see nothing wrong with that picture!'_

After vigorously kissing my face with my hand, I began to inspect Robot Boy. He was a massive kid, towering over me. He was lacking any hair on his head and had light brown eyes that actually made him seem kind of gentle. His robotic limbs on the other hand looked anything but gentle.

As I was ranting to myself, I heard Ozpin begin speaking "The four of you retrieved the white pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will be known as team DRGN, led by…"

'_Please don't be me, don't you fucking dare make me leader unless you want to die a slow and excruciatingly painful death. If you make me leader, then my first order will be to...'_

"Drake Knight."

'_I love you so much Ozpin! If I ever have any kids then I shall name one of them after you. I wonder how a baby girl by the name of Ozpin would sound.'_

After the introductions of the new teams were completed, we slowly made our ways to our new dorms. As we made it to what would be our new living quarters for the next four years, Drake tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Rica, do you mind if I speak to you for a minute."

"If you have something to tell me Drake then just say it."

"Me and Gael will wait in our dorm while you two speak to each other", Xochi said, briefly interrupting us before gesturing for her partner to join her. As they left my partner and I alone to talk to each other, I decided to try and get this conversation over and done with as quickly as possible.

"Say what you need to Drake." I probably should have expected Drake's next words.

"What the hell was that, back in the forest. We were supposed to act as a team and instead you leave me for dead just so you can make life a little easier for yourself."

"What's your point?"

"We are supposed to be a team Rica, not just some small convenience for you to exploit."

I wouldn't have been able to prevent myself from laughing at his words, even I had made the attempt to do so. "And what makes you think I give a shit? For all I care, we could all die slow and tragic deaths. I'm not here to try and be friends with anyone or to be a part of a team, I'm here because I have nowhere else to go."

Drake just looked at me in disbelief and anger. "Rica, this isn't some game where you can…"

"Actually, I disagree. People come here to train and become better at fighting monsters and to protect humanity from evil. That in itself is a massive joke. If you really want to know who the monsters are, then how about you have a look around in the great majestic city that is Vale, and open your fucking eyes! These creatures of grimm only kill us, because that is what they are bred and born to do. People like us on the other hand have a choice, and do you want to know what all our choices are always based on in the long run? Our own personal gain. People will not hesitate to murder, steal, or deceive each other if it means that they can have better lives." Drake's face went from anger to shock as I had my outburst.

"How can you think that? Have you never had someone to care about or to..." I never let him finish his sentence before I had a knife pressed against his throat.

"You have no fucking idea what I have had to do in my life! Don't you dare ask me about having a loved one again or I will kill you, just like I killed the bastards who took everything away from me!"

Before I could react, Drake activated his semblance to distance himself away from me. "Rica, calm down!" He didn't have the chance to say anything else before I began firing my other weapon at him. "I have lost loved ones as well Rica, I can understand that pain!" He said while running to try and dodge my attacks.

"You lost a loved one?! So what?! I lost any reason for living!" I screamed in rage as I kept firing at the asshole. "Don't try to relate to me Drake!" I was going to kill him for ever bringing up the memory of my brother, but before I could keep firing my guns at Drake, I felt a hand on my back. As I turned my head to see who had touched me, I felt a painful shock course through my body for several seconds before who ever shocked me removed his hand from my back. I collapsed onto the ground and tried to pick myself up off the ground, only to realise that I couldn't. My arms and legs refused to move at all, no matter how much I tried. Everything felt numb and I couldn't even concentrate hard enough to gather my thoughts.

As I slowly regained feeling to my body I felt myself getting lifted off of the ground and was soon dropped onto something soft. It all sounded blurry and distant but I could hear talk going on around me.

"What happened Drake? We leave you two for less than a minute and all of a sudden we hear gunfire going off and we see Rica trying to kill you!"

'_I'm still going to kill you when I can move my body again.' _I thought to myself. However before I could keep listening, I began to feel myself get drowsy and was soon lost in slumber.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Kalen!" I woke up to hearing someone shout that name, only to realise that it was me who had said it. I was breathing heavily and my face was sweating to the point where my face was practically drenched. '_It was just a dream Rica, no need to scare yourself to death.'_ I sighed deeply as I had the thought. If only it was just a dream. Even after almost three whole fucking years, I could still hear the sickening sound of that blade going through my brother's body. '_And it was your fault that you couldn't protect him. The one thing you held precious, the one thing that you had killed, stolen and cheated for, was killed because you were too useless to save him.'_

"Rica, are you alright?" I heard Gael asked as he approached me. Drake and Xochi were also now wide awake and walking towards me, although Drake could be seen rubbing his eyes in an attempt to keep himself awake.

'_Yes, I'm perfectly fucking fine. I just dreamt up the memory of my brother's death, nothing painful at all!'_

"Im fine, nothing to get concerned over." I lied.

"Then who's Kalen?" Xochi asked. I swore that I was going to kill her for bringing that name up.

"Mind your own damn business Xochi!"

Drake interrupted us. "Rica! We are only trying to help you."

I quickly got up off the bed, punched Drake in the stomach while walking past him, and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me and running. I didn't have a single fucking clue where I was going, but at the current moment, I didn't care. After several minutes of running aimlessly, I came across a large room filled with training dummies, shooting targets and even a training mat that I guessed was designed for practising hand to hand combat.

'_Well, looks like I've found the perfect place to stab something.' _So of course, the first thing I did was unsheathe my weapons, charge at one of the various training dummies and leapt at it, plunging my knife into it as my body weight crashed into the dummy toppling it over. As my body began to crash to the ground, I tucked my body in and rolled onto the ground before getting back onto my feet while still on the move, switching my weapons into their pistol forms and firing at the targets. Most of my shots hit close to the bullseye, but only a few managed to actually hit it. As I ran out of dust to fire, I reverted my weapons back into their knife form and swung around to two training dummies that were conveniently placed next to each other and threw my weapons, hitting each target right between what would have been a living person's eyes.

I inspected my quick little series of events noticing that I had managed to cause quite a bit of damage to the school's property. I went to grab my weapons from the dummies they were currently stuck inside of until I began to hear clapping coming from the entrance of the training area. "Nice little show you gave me there." I looked at the figure only to realise that it was the same damn blonde that I had met the day before.

'_Of all the times to see you again, this is probably the worst.' _I thought to myself, but now that I thought about, I now had someone I could hurt. '_What was her name again? Yin… Yana… Oh that's right.'_

"Game enough for a bit of sparring Yang?"

The blonde just smirked at me before replying, "I was hoping you would say that." After saying those words, Yang jumped high in the air while bringing her right arm back, which seemed to have some sort of gauntlet on it, before descending down, with me right below her. As she began to bring her fist down at my head, I leapt to the side of her strike and began to roll on the ground before a powerful blast hit the ground, causing the floor to shake uncontrollably. I awkwardly managed to get onto my feet before I saw blondie draw her fist back and punch the air towards me… only for a fiery projectile to come blasting its way towards me.

'_Oh shit!' _I thought, before ducking under the shot only to see the shooter fire her gauntlets backwards, propelling herself towards me. '_What The Fuck?!' _Almost without thinking, I leapt into the air, somersaulting over the blonde brawler, before landing perfectly on my feet and sprinting towards my weapons. I managed to get to my weapons and grab them out of the dummies before my eyes caught movement coming from the corner of my vision. Instinct overcame me, as I spun around the fist that almost sent me flying and swung my elbow around into Yang's face. The blonde girl was caught off-guard by the manoeuvre and lost balance, crashing into the two dummies that I had just pulled my weapons out of and knocking them off their poles.

While most people would wait for her to get back up so we could continue our 'sparring' session, I charged towards her, knives ready to slice her aura apart. However before I could make get within distance of her, she was all of a sudden on her feet and launching another fiery projectile, only this time she found her mark. The blast hit me right in the chest, launching me backwards several metres before I crashed onto the floor.

"You're pretty good, Foxy." Yang said as she leapt towards me and aimed a punch at my head while I got back to my feet.

"Not bad yourself, Blondie" I replied as I barely managed to sidestep her attack, giving me the perfect opportunity to deliver a knee to her stomach, causing her to gasp for breath. I quickly took the chance to stab at her neck, causing her aura to drop, before I felt her fist uppercut into my own stomach, firing off a shot at the same time. As I was sent flying high in the air, I transformed my weapon into pistol form and began firing at Yang while I was gliding through the air. Most of my bullets managed to hit her, only to bounce off of her aura. After taking the barrage of bullets I sent her way, Blondie used her gauntlets to propel herself in the area I would land and before I could get my feet to touch the ground, she spun through the air and hit me with a solid roundhouse kick, sending me rolling wildly on the ground. As I got back on my feet, yet again, I saw Yang swinging her fist around for a viscous hook that would probably knock me out instantly. I allowed my instinct to take over again and what happened in the next few seconds became nothing more than a blur, as I we finished the fight with my knives pressed firmly to her throat and her fist mere millimetres away from the side of my head.

We were now at a standstill as we stared at each other, trying to read one another. A quick flick of my wrists and her throat would be slit, but a tiny movement from her fists and my head could be blown clean off.

"Damn, that was fun." the blonde brawler said, killing the silence between us.

"I really fucking needed that." I replied lowering my weapons as she did the same.

"So how come you're here?"

"Would rather not talk about it."

"Sure thing."

"Well, it's pretty late, I should probably return to my dorms and scare the shit out of my team."

Yang laughed a bit at that. "Haha, sounds good. Well cya" Yang said waving, as I left the training area.

"Bye"

I walked to my dorm and was just about to open the door when I heard the rest of my team talking. I stopped myself just in time and decided to listen to the conversation.

"I hope Rica comes back soon." That sounded like Drake's voice.

"She'll be fine Drake, she's more than likely just ran off to blow some steam." I heard Xichi reply. '_Damn, the bitch is smarter than I thought.'_

"She's been gone for over an hour Xochi." Gael replied.

"An hour isn't that long when your angry, Gael" Xochi answered. "Just give her some time. Anyways, I have been wondering, how did you guys make it to Beacon?" she asked, trying to change the subject

Gael was the first to respond. "I would rather not talk about it."

"What about you Drake? From what my mother once told me, the Knight family have a long lineage of hunters."

"We do, or at least we did."

"What do you mean?" I could barely hear Drake sigh as he began to tell his story.

"My entire family was killed over four years ago, by mercenaries hired by a woman that goes by the name of Cinder Fall."

"What?" I could hear Xochi's voice in shock as he revealed his family's fate.

"We were caught by surprise and most us fell quickly. I was the only who managed to survive however. But can we please not speak about it. All you need to know is that after that event, I spent the next two years trying to find the woman who ordered my family's demise so I could kill her. Ozpin found me first though and managed to cease my efforts for revenge after some time. It's because of him, that I'm here now."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that Drake." I heard Gael apologise.

"It's fine big guy, though I'm more concerned about Rica. Unlike me, she didn't have anyone to help her through her loss. She was talking to me about it when we had our argument, and she said that she made the bastards who took everything away from her suffer. Unlike me she got her revenge, while I just let it go."

I couldn't stand listening to the conversation any longer and began to make my way to the roof of the academy. As I reached the roof of the academy, I just stood there and stared out into the stars. Before sitting down and saying, "Not quite Drake. No matter how long I live, there will always be one person that I will never be able to get my vengeance on." I continued to sit on top of the roof, waiting until the sun eventually rose.


	7. Chapter 6

_Author's Note- So here's the next chapter. I'm sorry that it took so long to finish but a combination of working a baker (apprentice) and a small case of writer's block made this chapter take a bit longer than what I would have liked. Regardless I still hope you enjoy this story, and don't worry Sentient Pixel, I will get to writing Gael's personality soon._

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Here I was, walking back to my team's dorms while I thought about what I had heard. Oddly enough, even though I should have felt at least some sympathy towards Drake, I found myself feeling nothing but contempt towards Drake.

As I opened the door to my dorm, I saw an opportunity that I couldn't resist. My team were all sound asleep and just begging for a rude awakening. "If you're not awake within three seconds guys then I'm going to be getting my early morning laughs." I said, only for them to continue sleeping. '_Three… Two… One… Well, I gave them all ample warming.'_

"WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

Gael's reaction was the most disappointing as he just moved his head around quickly before groaning and continuing to lay in his bed. Xochi amused me as she managed to headbut the wall next to her, putting a hole in it. Drake on the other hand, amused me immensely as he began waving his hands around wildly before falling off his bed and landing hard on his face. Ah Drake, why must you be so damn easy?'

"Where the hell have you been Rica?" Drake asked as I watched him slowly getting up from the floor.

"Exploring." I replied, not wishing to discuss what I had done last time.

"But we went looking everywhere for you after you didn't turn up after a hour."

_'But I was listening to their conversation an hour or so after I stormed off. Which means they must have started searching right after I left… Bad timing on that one guys.'_ I thought to myself before replying. "You obviously didn't check the roof then."

"Oh...Well… Um… Not really."

The sound Xochi made when she facepalmed, made me surprised that her hand didn't go straight through her skull. "You're a real fucking genius Drake. Oh, and to add to your amazing level of intellect, It's now 8:30 and our first class starts…" I acted like I was trying to remember the time of our first class before finishing my sentence, "At 7:00, you do the math." The shocked look on Drake's face before he used his semblance to get dressed in his uniform and to class almost brought me to tears. After he rushed off to class, I began dropping on the floor, laughing so hard that I had trouble breathing, before hearing Xochi sigh deeply.

"You do realise that our first class actually starts at 9:00, don't you?"

"I do, but fortunately for me, my partner doesn't." I replied before returning to laughing uncontrollably. Surprisingly, Xochi began to laugh with me, although she managed to keep her composure, before adding to the conversation.

"How long do you think it will take before he realises that he has no idea which class we are supposed to be going to?"

"My guess is, in about 20 minutes." We laughed at that comment for a bit longer before I asked, "By the way, what class do we have first?"

"Combat Training with Professor Goodwitch"

_'Great, first class of the day and it's being taught by someone I would very much like to murder.' "Well, we may as well get ourselves prepared for class."_

Close to half an hour later, Xochi, Gael and I were walking towards our class only for me to get an odd feeling that I had been through this part of the school. As we reached what was supposedly our classroom, we came across Drake, having presumably figured out that I had fooled him, waiting for us and opened the door to get inside. All of a sudden I realised that I had been here last night. _'Oops'_ was all I could think of as I looked at the sight of many dismembered, burnt, or shredded training dummies.

"Now students, you may be wondering why the training equipment is in such a poor state. Well, maybe Miss Sicarius and Miss Xiao Long would like to answer that question for us." Professor Goodwitch said, standing on top of a stage and staring right at me. The rest of my teammates turned their attention to me, giving me questioning looks. _'Well this is going to be fun explaining.'_ However Goodwitch never gave me the chance as she pressed a button on a remote she was holding and a screen came into view above her, perfectly showing the whole class the fight between me and the blonde chick. _'Well shit.'_ "Although I do not encourage the destruction of valuable school equipment, and I will be having a long chat with you and your accomplice young lady…"

_'"Young Lady" my ass.'_

"... I must confess that the skill in battle shown by both you and Miss Xiao Long was quite impressive to watch."

_'Didn't see that compliment coming.'_

"However, that does not mean you will get away without any punishment, but that will be an issue for later. For now however we shall begin the class and your late night sparring session has offered some… inspiration for today's class."

_'Really?'_

"Throughout your whole battle, I noticed that while both of you used your aura and weaponry to great effect, neither of you activated your semblances. Many huntsmen and huntresses have been known to fall in battle because of an over reliance on their semblance, leaving them exhausted or in a position where it hinders them instead of aiding them. For the next two weeks we will be working on your technique and skills without the use of your semblance."

_'That's actually kind of interesting'_

I looked towards my teammates to see their reactions, only to see Xochi with an excited look on her face, Gael slowly nodding his head in understanding, and Drake looking slightly nervous but determined. "Now that you know what to be prepared for, we will begin by pitting pairs of students against each other. If you would all look at the screen, two names will be randomly chosen and will fight each until I decide that one is unable to continue. Now if you would all look at the screen so we can see who the first two opponents will be."

* * *

The class was now over and we now walked out of the classroom, in search for our next class. For once, I actually felt quite satisfied while here. My opponent had been some rich bitch with a shiny blade and it had proved to be quite interesting. She had actually proven very good at parrying my attacks and had even managed to disarm me, but after deliberately taking a big hit from her blade with my aura, I managed to knock her sword from her hands. I may have been close to running out of aura to shield myself at that point, but that was all I needed as it turned out that, while she was proficient with her blade, without it she was next to useless. I on the other hand, excelled at it.

"Rica," I heard Drake begin, as we began walking to our next class. And any satisfaction I may of still had was thrown right out the window. I was still angry at Drake after the events of last night and wasn't in the mood to deal with him at the moment. "There's something I should tell you. Something that I already talked about with Xochi and Gael last night, after you left."

_'If he starts talking about what I overheard last night then this conversation isn't going anywhere pretty.'_ I thought before replying. "I'm listening."

"Four years ago…"

_'Yep, this is going to get very ugly'_

"... Your family was killed and you started searching for the bitch who sent the mercenaries that killed your family. I know, I overheard the whole conversation. What's your point?"

Drake just stared at me wide-eyed as he took in what I had just said. He eventually managed to get back to his senses and asked, "Then why are you always so hostile to me when you know that I've experienced the pain of loss as well?"

And that's when I lost any sort of control over my words. "Because now I know that you are either a coward, a weak willed idiot, or both! You had a single person talk to you and all of a sudden you just give up on the one fucking thing you had left?! You're a fool to think that we are relatable!. I didn't back away like some coward, I didn't let anyone get in my way from the only thing I had left! Unlike you, I found the bastards that killed my brother and I made them suffer for ever destroying the one good thing in my meaningless fucking life!"

"You think I'm a coward for stopping myself from becoming a person consumed by hatred?" Drake's voice gave off a more rigid tone now and as I stared into his eyes, I saw anger. "Then tell me, now that you have your revenge, what do you have left apart from your weapons and the ability to use them?" I found myself unable to answer his question but I continued to stare at him with anger in my own eyes. "Exactly, you have nothing left." His voice suddenly changed from being bitter to calm. "You don't have to do anything on your own anymore, you can allow others to help you. Please Rica, let me help you. We're two sides of the same coin."

Next thing I knew, my fist had made contact with his face and he was recoiling from surprise at the strike. I let out a laugh but this one had no humour in it. "No Drake, we aren't. We're the same side on two very different coins. Only difference is, that while you were given a nice shiny golden coin, I was forced to make do with a single rusty old coin that couldn't even get me the cheapest item in a store." Before he could say anything else, I turned myself invisible and stormed off.

This whole situation was pissing me off. I was getting sick and fucking tired of Drake always trying to get closer to me. He actually had the nerve to think that we were in any way, shape or form, kindred spirits. Fortunately for me there was still a simple solution for all this.

_'If he tries to get closer to me one more god damn time, then I'm going to kill him.'_


	8. Chapter 7

_Author's Note- So here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy, though you may just hate me just a teeny weeny little bit by the end of it._

* * *

**Chapter 7**

It had been a week since our last argument and to say that our partnership was shaky at best, would have had to have been the biggest fucking understatement I have ever heard in my entire life. We had spoken hardly a word to each other, giving each other only brief glances, which was the way I preferred it. The only thing that Drake and I had managed to find something in common with each other, that didn't make me want to kill him, was the fact that we both liked to sleep in class.

A fact that was now being further proved by the sight of Drake sleeping at another one of Professor Oobleck's history lectures, with me beginning to find myself bored and tired. The only thing that kept me awake during these speeches was through a very challenging game of trying to follow the teacher's movements. I knew that some people had a near addiction to the beverage called coffee, but holy crap, how many fucking sugars did he put into that cup? His normal speed was probably faster than Drake's when he was using his semblance! However, for some reason, I was feeling more tired than usual and before long I began to doze off.

* * *

I was off wandering the streets in search of any dropped coins or anything that could be used for food. My brother and I would often split up in search of anything we could find or steal to help us survive for another day or two. While I searched a random alley way I came across a wallet that must have been dropped by some careless idiot within the past few days. I quickly ran to it and picked it up off of the ground and checked to see if there was anything of use inside. My eyes opened in surprised glee as I saw it contained a hundred lien note inside. '_This could help keep us fed for a whole two weeks if we're careful with it, and I didn't even have to risk stealing it.'_

I put the wallet into my pocket and began to quickly run off to where my brother and I had picked as a meeting place after we were done searching. I was there within half an hour, but I couldn't see my brother yet. I wasn't worried for now, considering that I had arrived here earlier than usual so I began to wait for my brother to arrive. '_He's supposed to be back within an hour anyway, then I can show him the good news.' _I thought to myself.

I waited patiently for my brother to arrive but after an hour of him not appearing, I began to worry. '_Don't worry Rica, he probably just got himself delayed. He will show up any minute now, nothing to worry about.' _Despite what I kept telling myself, a feeling of dread was starting to wash over me. After another hour of waiting and Kalen still not returning, I was worried beyond rational thought and sprinted away from the meeting place while searching every street and alleyway I could. The feeling of dread was now completely drowning my mind.

After an extra half an hour of searching, I ran around a corner of a back alley and finally found my brother. I finally let out a massive sigh of relief as I saw his face. But then I saw everything else around him and saw a group of armed men surrounding him. The feeling of dread now made it's return in full force and I began to rush to my brother to try and save him. However my legs just froze in place when I heard the sound of metal cutting through flesh and a cry of pain. The crowd of men opened up slightly, enough for me to see a blade sticking through Kalen's chest. I just stood there shocked, unable to move, unable to speak or breathe, unable to even think. One of the men grabbed the blade sticking out of my brother's chest and pulled it out of him, as he collapsed to the concrete ground. The men turned to the exit to see me standing there in shock. One of the men unsheathed his sword, with the obvious intent to remove the witness of the murder… to kill me. However I was saved as the man who had my brother's blood on his blade, put his hand out and shook his head at him. The man who was about to kill me simply nodded his head and put his blade back into his sheathe. The group ran past me through the exit and left me there to stare at the dying body of my brother.

After a few minutes of standing there in horror, my feet and voice suddenly came back to me. I rushed to my brother's side while constantly yelling one word.

"Kalen!"

* * *

"Rica!"

I was woken by a shake of my shoulders, only to see Drake, Professor Oobleck, and everyone else in the classroom staring at me, with looks of confusion, surprise, and shock on their faces. I found the attention of everyone unbearable and so I did the only thing that I came to my head at the time. I activated my semblance and ran out of the classroom as fast as I could. I may have been invisible but everyone knew that the door didn't magically open itself up only to slam itself into the gap in the wall. I needed to be alone and the only place I could think of right now was to go to the rooftops.

I reached the top of the rooftops, and dropped to the floor as I buried my face into my hands. '_Why do I always see my brother's death? I avenged him, I found and killed the men who took my brother away from me. So why am I still haunted by his death?'_ I asked myself. I had no idea how long I was sitting there for, before I heard the voice of the one person that I wanted to hear or see the least.

"I thought I might find you here."

"Drake… Leave… Me… Alone!"

"Bloody hell Rica, stop pushing me away when I'm here for you."

"One more fucking word from you and I'll kill you Drake!"

"Rica…"

I never let him continue with whatever he was about to say before both my guns were pointed at him and firing. He seemed to be prepared for it this time though and was already dodging my shots while pulling out his blade and charging towards me.

He ran to my side and tried to slice through my aura, but I quickly swapped my weapons into their knife form and deflected his strike as he began to run past me. Before he could make it safely past me however, I spun myself around and swung my leg around, connecting with Drake's face, causing him to crash and roll across the ground.

"Drake. Run now or I will kill you."

He just picked himself up from the ground and readied his weapon before answering, rather predictably, "I'm not going anywhere Rica."

That was all I needed before I shouted and ran towards him, intent on slitting his fucking throat.

* * *

_Author's Note- Aaaaaaaaaand Cliffhanger mother fuckers! Have fun on that rocky ledge!_


	9. Chapter 8

_Author's Note- And here's the new chapter that was supposed to be a part of chapter 7... until I got the uncontrollable urge to troll you guys with a cliffhanger. TOTALLY WORTH IT! And before you start calling me a dick, you should remember that this is coming from the creator of Rica. You guys probably should've seen it coming from a MILE away. Also all of your reviews were fucking priceless. Anyways enjoy the next chapter and watch Rica try to kill Drake for the... I'm just going to stop counting now._

* * *

Chapter 8

I was fucking angry. Drake and I were clashing blades on a rooftop because he wouldn't leave me the fuck alone.

I jumped back and switched the knife in my left hand into it's pistol form before once again trying to shoot the idiot. He dodged with his semblance and I could see him slowly getting closer between each shot. I readied the knife in my right hand.

Once he got in range he jumped at me with his blade, only trying to scrape me from the looks of things. '_Idiot actually thinks he can beat me into submission. _

I replied with a parry from my left hand and punched him in the face with my right before quickly going for a slash across his neck while he was stunned. He was lucky and managed to bring his gauntlet up to block the blade. This gave him an opening to headbutt me and rip my pistol out of my left hand. He threw it away, off to the side, and jumped back to get some distance between us.

"Why are you doing this Rica?! All I want to do is help you and instead, you keep pushing me away!"

"Then stop trying to get so fucking close to me and I wouldn't need to keep pushing!"

I charged forward at Drake this time and went to slice his chest. He blocked with his sword but since I now had a free hand I grabbed his wrist and managed to twist his sword out of his grip before kicking it off to the other side. With him now mostly defenceless I went for another slash at his throat but he managed to block it with that damned gauntlet again. He pushed me back again before a blade extended from his gauntlet and showed he was not defenceless at all.

'_That fucking gauntlet!'_

"Look at you, all you do is keep your pain inside and what keeps happening? You become filled with these nightmares, you try to kill those who help you, and that pain of yours keeps coming back to haunt you!"

"And what the hell would talking do about it?!"

"It would get that weight off your chest, it would give you people who can give you company through the pain, it could allow you to move past all of it."

It was then that my voice dropped from a yell to a low, almost menacing tone. "So you want me to just forget about my brother? Forget about the one person that made me genuinely happy in my life? Forget about watching my brother die as I stood there unable to save him?"

"Rica, you know that's not what…"

And now my voice went back to a furious shout. "How dare you! How about I tell you to just forget about the slaughter of your family! You lost your parents? Well no big fucking deal! How about we just pretend that they never even fucking existed in the first place!"

'_I've had it with this fight, I'm killing this bitch NOW!'_

I ran straight at him once more and got ready to stab him in the face. He was smart enough to get into a defensive stance.

I went to stab him in the face but he grabbed my arm before it could make contact with him. I threw a punch but he deflected it and went to stab me in the stomach. He left himself open when he went to attack me so I punched him in the nose and kneed him in the crotch. This made him pause in his attack as he staggered and allowed me to dodge to the side and get around him, switching my grip to pull his arm with me and put him in a hold.

'_So he's finally fighting back!'_

I went to put my blade to his throat but he used the back of his head to hit me in the face. I reeled from the hit, giving him the opportunity to get out of the hold and ready his weapon again. He attacked me first this time, going for a slash across my stomach. I dodged to the left and tried to round house kick him in the face but he managed to grab my leg mid-swing in his hands before pulling me in towards him. I almost lost my footing but manage to stay standing, in doing so I opened myself up to an attack. Luckily for me he was only able to attack with his right hand as he had to hold my right leg with his gauntlet. He hit me in the stomach with a couple of jabs before I hit him in the back of the knee causing him to stagger giving me enough time to latch onto his neck for balance as I kneed him in the stomach many times over.

He finally fell over onto his back after the ninth hit and I was now on top of him. I pulled my knife up to his neck and started to slowly add pressure as I grinned down at his struggling form. He gave me one last look, before I was sailing backwards through the air with an incredible pain in my stomach. It felt like my stomach was on fire. I was wheezing, trying to get air back into my lungs while my eye's watered. I was only barely able to notice as Drake held his blade to my throat.

As Drake kept his blade firmly pressed against my throat, I realised that there was no use in trying to struggle. The fucking asshole had won. '_Damn.' _I looked into Drake's eyes before admitting defeat and saying, resigning myself to my fate. It was weird, I had always thought that I would afraid to die, yet as his blade was a quick motion away from ending my life, I found myself completely calm and accepting of the fact.

And yet, for some reason,Drake's was looking down on me with an expression of, what appeared to be, pity

'_What is he doing.' _"Just kill me already." I managed to get out. "Maybe I'll be able to be with my brother again." Before I could even blink, the pressure of the blade on my neck was suddenly eased and I saw a sad expression on Drake's face.

"I'm not going to kill you Rica. I want to help you move on with your past."

"You want to help me? Then reunite me with me brother, let me be happy in death."

"Do you really think that's what your brother would want? For you to just give your life up?"

"How the fuck would you know what my brother would want?!"

"I don't know, but you do. So Rica, tell me, what would your brother want you to do?"

It was a question that I had never tried to answer or even consider. As I closed my eyes and began to think over the question, I felt myself begin to lose consciousness as I mulled over it.

'_So Rica, what would your brother want you to do?' _was the last thing I asked myself before I drifted off into an exhaustion induced sleep.


	10. Chapter 9

_Author's Note- So here is the next chapter. Sorry but I have to admit that this one is my shortest one yet, but hopefully it's still enjoyable. I decided to go back to a bit of the classic Rica humour that I just love to torture Drake with._

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Here I was, in a fucking hospital bed being forced to lie down and rest. All it made me do was want to seriously fucking stab something.

Apparently when I fell unconscious, Drake actually noted the stab wound he had inflicted on me, and had rushed me to Beacon's infirmary. I was soon rushed to the Vale hospital and was given immediate treatment. I'm just glad that I had been injected with some seriously good painkillers by the time I woke up.

'_Note to self, give Drake living fucking hell.'_

But of course, to make the future even brighter for Drake, they told me that when I was free to leave the hospital, I wouldn't be allowed in any physical exercise or combat for at least a month. Things were looking really bad for Drake in the month to come. Oh how I couldn't wait to strangle the fucking asshole. As I was thinking of several creative ways to torture my partner until he would begin pleading for death, the very asshole himself opened the door to see how I was doing.

"I heard the diagnosis. I may have gone a little too far with that last strike." Drake said, causing me to glare angrily at him.

'_Really? You don't fucking say? Though, to be fair, I was trying to kill him.''_

"Drake, you do realise that when I make a full recovery, you're fucked right?"

"I guessed as much." He said with a slight shrug. "Anyways, have you thought about my question." He said, in an attempt to change subjects. Luckily for him, it worked as I knew exactly which question he was talking about.

"I think he would understand my actions. Approve of them is another matter entirely, but he would probably know why I did it."

"Ok, but what would he want you to do now."

And there was the problem. "I honestly don't know Drake. I wish I did but I don't. For all I know he could have very well been furious that I'm even a student at Beacon."

"Rica, I know you're 'touchy', to say the least when it comes to talking about your brother…"

I directed a glare at Drake, conveying a very clear message. '_Tread very lightly Drake.'_

"...but what was he like?"

"Well, for starters, he didn't try to kill me."

I smirked as a look of irritation showed on Drake's face. "But you've already tried to kill me twice."

"Three times actually, but that's tiny compared to the amount of times I almost got Kalen killed." I said with a sly grin on my face, getting rewarded with a look of disbelief.

'_Ah Drake, you make it so damn easy to get a reaction out of you.'_

"It runs in the family." The best part of all this was the fact that Drake would never now I was talking bullshit. "But anyways, before I get the urge to stab you… again… could you do one tiny little favour for me?"

Drake raised an eyebrow at me, as if he already knew that this wasn't going to end well.

"And what 'tiny little favour' would that be?"

"Get me the fuck out of this fucking hospital! I swear, the food I picked up from the garbage dumps when I lived on the streets tasted better than this bunch of crap!"

"Ouch, lets hope that the cook didn't hear that."

"I dont give a shit! If I don't get out of here soon then this hospital is going to very quickly become a morgue."

"Ok ok, I'll get you out of here, if only to avoid another temper tantrum."

'_Thank the fucking dust that made us, FREEDOM!'_

I watched in slight amusement as Drake picked me up off of the bed in a bridal fashion. As he began to start walking out of door. While he carried me around, I saw an opportunity to get a little payback at Drake for putting me in this hellhole of a hospital. As his attention was turned away from me, I quickly gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

I was rewarded with the greatest look of shock I had ever seen in my life, as Drake completely stopped moving and stood there, jaw dropped in shock. Unfortunately, in his state of shock, the dick completely forgot that I was being held in his arms and dropped me, causing me to land on the floor extremely awkwardly and painfully. "Fucking dammit, you asshole!"

My outburst, caused one of the nurses to come out and look at me on the floor and Drake looking like an asshole. "Young lady! Why are you not resting like you were instructed?"

'_Oh fuck!'_

"Drake, snap the fuck out of it, pick me up and RUN!" For once things actually felt like working out for me, as Drake was soon using his semblance to escape the hospital with me in his arms. All I felt was a massive rush as Drake ran at an adrenaline inducing speed, causing me to quickly lose any sense of bearing I may have had beforehand. I soon felt air pounding my face as we made it outside.

"FREEDOM!" was all I could yell out while we made our way back to Beacon.

As we finally got back to the academy's entrance I was actually smiling as I no longer had to deal with those damned nurses. However that smile quickly dissipated as I noticed two figures standing at the entrance, waiting for us. As we got closer, I realised that it was none other than Ozpin and…

'_GOODWITCH! Oh fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!'_

"Drake, get me back to the hospital! Now!"


	11. Chapter 10

_Author's Note- I would have had this chapter done sooner but the thing is... Well... Uhh... Borderlands 2 game of the year edition, with a mate really does waste so many hours like no tomorrow. And that is mot likely going to be my excuse for late chapters for the next couple of weeks :P. Anyways, I hope you like the chapter and write down anything you may like or dislike in a PM or review. Believe it or not, that shit actually helps! Also we finally have a chapter that doesn't JUST scrape over 1000 words, and is actually a satisfactory length for me. YAY!_

* * *

**Chapter 10**

Drake and I were approaching Beacon and as soon as I saw Goodwitch, I began to try and convince Drake to take me back to that stupid fucking hospital. Anything was better than dealing with an angry Goodwitch and, needless to say, she looked really fucking pissed.

"Go back? But we just arrived here." Drake answered before I saw a sly little grin on the fucker's face. "Besides, Professor Goodwitch looks really pleased to see you."

'_I taught that asshole way too fucking well.' _I thought to myself. "You planned this, didn't you?"

"Guilty as charged."

"You do realise that you are so fucking dead once I heal up, right?"

"I found that out after the first time you tried to kill me."

"Yes, but I was going to kill you quickly before. Now I'm going to torture you excruciatingly slowly and make you beg for death. Then once I've had my fun, which will take a very long time, I'm going to strangle you with your own intestines."

Drake looked at me in a confused and slightly disturbed manner before replying, "How is that even remotely possible?"

"I'll find a way Drake, trust me on that." Unfortunately this only seemed to make Drake run faster. I only had a few moments before the wrath of Goodwitch would be upon me. "Okay, okay. I'll postpone the intestine strangling for a later date, but for now, turn back and…" I began racking my brains for a suitable bargaining chip to get him to turn back, then I remembered his highly entertaining reaction back at the hospital. "I could give you another kiss." I said with a small grin on my face, only for Drake to chuckle lightly.

"Get a kiss on the cheek or avoid Goodwitch's wrath. As tempting as you make it, I think that avoiding Goodwitch's wrath topples your proposition by just a little bit."

'_And now he's dug his own grave.'_

"Whoever said it had to be on the cheek?"

'_And there's the large reddening patch on Drake's face that I was looking for.'_

"A-and what makes you t-think I'd be interested?"

"The large red patch on your face, the constant stuttering… and now the newfound refusal to look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you." I said with an almost diabolical grin on my face.

'_Ah Drake, teasing you is way too much fun. Ah well, if it's worth doing then it's worth completely overdoing.'_

"Aww, is poor little Drakey starting to get a crush?"

"Ok, now you're just messing with me."

"What the fuck do you mean by 'now'? I was fucking with you the entire time, though I'm honestly not joking when I say that I would more than happily kiss you if you get me far, far away from her."

Drake stared at me with a raised eyebrow while saying, "You really do have a twisted mind, you know that right?"

I let out a loud cackle at the comment while staring at him with a malicious smile. "Oh Drake, you really do have no idea how 'twisted' my mind can be when it comes to embarrassing you."

"I don't know whether I should be curious or scared to know what thoughts you keep inside that head of yours."

'_You should be very, very scared of what I can come up with, but please let your curiosity win over this time. Just for my sake alone. Pleeeeeeeeease.' _

"Oh and Rica, you should try taking a look behind you." I finally noticed that he had stopped using his semblance to stop moving and was looking at me with a look of victory on his face.

'_Now to decide what sort of poison I should 'accidentally' drop into Drake's next meal.'_

"First of all, well played. Second of all, go fuck yourself!" No longer had I said those words, that I felt an excruciatingly pain hit the back of my head. '_I swear I am going to fucking whack her over the back of the head with that cane one day! We'll see how she likes getting a permanent fucking headache because of that thing!'_

"You and I are going to have a nice long chat young lady!"

I looked up at Drake before pleading, "Drake, if you have any sort of mercy in that heart of yours, then I beg you to kill me now." It wasn't long before I felt a tug on the collar of my shirt and was getting dragged away by the Bitch of Beacon herself.

* * *

It had been a few days after the incident and my team and I were currently at a cafeteria table, conversing with the members of teams RWBY and JNPR. I was feeling lucky that I was still alive.

I had almost committed suicide at having to listen to Goodwitch lecture me for about two hours which could have been shortened to a remarkable extent. 'Don't try to kill your teammates, don't destroy the school's things and don't swear in front of your teachers.' All three of which I already knew that I would do anyway within the week.

I mentally ticked the first rule off as broken, as Drake began to choke on his food. I may have potentially slipped something awful into his meal while he wasn't watching. I knew it wasn't going to be fatal, unfortunately, but it was still fun to watch Drake suffer for a few minutes until Xochi slapped him on the back hardly, causing him to cough up the food he had just consumed.

We had recently began to eat alongside team RWBY over the past few days as Yang had decided to invite me and my team to eat with them. Apparently Yang liked it when someone could actually go toe to toe with her when it came to one on one battles. Although I still found Yang to be too talkative at times, I actually found some things that I could respect about her. She wasn't one of those people that would try to weave around an issue. Her approach to life was as simple as her fighting style, direct and straight to the point. She never wasted her time with neat little tricks to distract others, instead she would simply attack the issue head on. No sugar-coating, just an honest opinion. It also helped to find out that we both a shared a quick temper and one hell of a sense of humour.

"So Rica, how are you holding up with that injury of your's?" I turned my head around to face the girl dressed in red that had just asked me that question. And that's where I started finding problems.

I couldn't stand the rest of team RWBY.

Their leader, although a capable fighter, was naive beyond belief and was, what people would call, an eternal optimist. She was always trying to find the bright side of situations even if surrounded by shadows, and that managed to piss me off. She needed to grow the fuck up and realise that there wasn't a bright side to life. It was all just a pointless game of self gain and preservation that humans and faunus would continue to play until we all died out.

Her partner, Weiss, actually turned out to be the 'rich bitch with a shiny blade' that I had beaten over a week ago in our fight. I soon developed the habit of wanting to punch her in the face everytime she opened that big mouth of hers. She was a boastful bitch who tried to act more superior than us at any and every given opportunity. However, the one thing that constantly kept us at hostile tensions with one another was the fact that she was a racist. She tried to keep it to herself, but for someone who had a knack for noticing things, it was all too easy to tell that she considered my fox-traits anything but useful. For the sakes of our teams though, our arguments were all always spoken through piercing glares and small hints of disgust at one another.

And then there was Blake. I hated her the most for one reason alone. Even though we both seemed to have the same sense of realism that was constantly getting irritated by Ruby's optimism, and we both had a dry sense of humour, although hers was a lot more subtle than mine. And yet there was one major difference between us that made me instantly hostile towards her. She was nothing more than a fucking coward. I noticed, multiple times, that the bow on her head would twitch from time to time. She was a faunus and she opted to cower from humanity and hide her traits. I may not give a shit about being a faunus or the strife that we have to go through, but I refused to ever hide what I was to others.

I was a bitch. I was a cold blooded murderer. And I was a fox faunus. That's who I was and I wasn't about to hide it from the world anytime soon.

"I'm extremely frustrated that I can't fight and it's giving me a massive urge to stab something."

The white haired bitch decided to get into the conversation. "Of course someone like you would jump straight to violence."

I directed a glare towards her, ready to fight back verbally, if not physically. "And what exactly do you mean by 'someone like me'?"

"I mean you have no self control and blatantly disregard the consequences that your actions could cause to yourself and your teammates."

'_Oh, that is most definitely not what you meant you spoiled little brat.'_

"Well sorry princess that I wasn't given everything I needed just because I was too lazy and spoiled to do it myself." I was quickly rewarded with a glare from Weiss and our usual routine of trying to kill each other with murderous looks continued.

I was going to enjoy the next time I got the chance to face her in combat.


	12. Chapter 11

_Author's Note- So here's the next chapter, and also the last in the 'Rica trying to kill Drake' story arc. The next story arc will be coming with a couple of chapters but untill then, there are a couple of fluff/angst chapters that I plan to write purely for the sake of some small character development. But yeah, once I get to the next story arc, that's when I'm getting to some serious story plot. So be expecting many more cliffhangers to come once I get to that point._

* * *

**Chapter 11**

'_Thank the fucking dust that made us!'_ Today was probably the greatest day of my life. After a month of sitting on my ass, unable to do anything. I was finally able to participate in combat practise. I was finally able to stab someone with my weapons and I couldn't wait.

I was waiting eagerly for the screen to select the first matchup of the day. "The first battle shall be between…" Goodwitch began, waiting for the first two names to appear on the screen. "Rica Sicarius"

"Yes I finally get to to stab someone!" After a few seconds, I realised that I had actually said the words aloud, where everyone heard me. Funnily enough, everyone began to cautiously take a step away from me. "What? I like stabbing people, it's fun." It only caused people to back away even farther, more to my amusement. The only person who actually didn't back away was my own partner, the person who I would have thought would be backing away the quickest. '_I wonder what the odds are that Drake will be my opponent.'_

"Well, after that little outburst Miss Sicarius, you may like to pay attention now so you can find out who your opponent will be." I immediately turned my attention to the screen and waited eagerly for my opponents name to show up. "Rica, your opponent will be…." As I saw the name, I couldn't prevent the cruel, malicious and downright evil grin that appeared on my face. I turned to my opponent only to see him immediately looking towards the door, seemingly pondering whether he could escape quick enough or not.

"... Drake Knight."

'_Revenge. Sweet, sweet, cold blooded revenge. How I love you so'_

Drake looked at me in desperation, only to stare into my near demonic eyes. He must have realised he was screwed because he activated his semblance and tried to escape through the door. However, just as he was about to escape the door suddenly slammed into him face first and sent him flying back into the crowd of students. I looked up to the stage to see that the 'Bitch of Beacon' had used whatever black magic she had to stop Drake from escaping.

'_Well shit, I actually hate her slightly less now.'_ I thought as I walked onto the stage and waited for Drake to get up and accept that he was well and truly fucked. After a few moments he seemed to realise that getting the battle over done with as quickly as possible was the best solution and walked to the other stage of the podium, readying his weapon.

I started the fight by shooting at his face. He obviously tried to dodge but I still got a hit or two on his body. I switched one of my guns to the blade and got ready for when he reached me.

When he was in range to attack when he tried to slash me with his sword but I dodged backwards and shot him in the chest again. He realised the danger he was in and went to swipe the gun out of my hand with his gauntlet blade but I blocked it with my knife and shot at his sword arm, causing him to drop his weapon. So far I was at a much bigger advantage than him and I was not going to stop any time soon.

I kicked him in the knee before backing out of his range again and activating my semblance, turning invisible. I moved around him and kicked his sword off the stage. It gave away my position however and he immediately ran over to my approximate position and swung his gauntlet blade wildly trying to hit me through luck. I dodged his swings with ease and moved out of range from his attacks

Looking to have some fun I got a really good idea. I moved behind him and whispered in his ear, "Behind you."

He turned almost fast enough to catch me, but I was already gone. I almost laughed before getting behind him again and stabbing him in the back.

"What did I just say Drake?" I taunted, while deactivating my semblance. The only problem my semblance had was that, the more I moved and attacked while invisible, the quicker it would deplete my aura. I stabbed him in the back again and pushed him to the ground. I shot him in the back 4 more times before looking at the screen and noticing that he was almost in the red.

'_I really want to end this fight by stabbing him some more.' _

"Well come on Drake, I haven't even taken a hit yet." I taunted before picking him up by the collar and throwing him to his feet.

He turned around to face me again and got into a defensive posture with his gauntlet's blade at the ready. I smiled evilly before stalking towards him with both my blades at the ready. Once I thought I was close enough I jumped at him and went to slash him with my left blade. He blocked my attack with his gauntlet but left himself completely open to my right blade which I used to continually stab him in the chest.

The last time we had fought each other, I had been overcome with rage and only wanted to hurt anything that got in my way. However as I fought Drake now, everything I did was aimed towards efficiency and being deadly. And now as the alarm rang to signal the end of the match, I now had my knife ready for one final stab. Yet, for some reason, I was already satisfied with my victory and sheathed my weapons, while walking off of the stage.

As the the next matchups were beginning, Drake approached me with a confused look on his face. "Is there a reason you're looking like a stunned mullet, Drake?"

"I suppose. I'm just unsure as to why you didn't go for that last stab."

"I don't know, I just didn't feel like it was worth the trouble." Drake raised an eyebrow that immediately gave off a look of disbelief. Before he could say anything, I continued to speak. "Drake, the reason I hated you so much was the fact that you were always trying to look out for me. The only other person to ever give a fuck about me was Kalen. I suppose that it kept reminding me of my brother. My brother was the one good thing in my life and he was killed in front of my own eyes. Every time you reminded me of my brother, I kept reliving that one moment in my head and it hurt." Drake looked at me sympathetically and for once, I didn't want to hurt him. "I suppose I just didn't want anyone to ever get close to me on a personal level."

"So does this mean you're not going to try and kill me anymore?" Drake asked with a small hint of humour in his voice.

"Don't be so sure of that. You still manage to make it way too much fun to resist, but I might decide to try and kill you only once a week, instead of daily."

"Thanks Rica, really appreciate it."

"Aww how cute, I'm finally teaching you sarcasm."

"Ah well, at least I can never claim that I'm bored."

I laughed a little at the truth of that statement . I suppose I did put a little excitement into his life. We spent the rest of the lesson watching the other students fight each other, though there were a few occasions where I felt a certain someone's hand brush against my ears.

'_And to think that I had almost forgotten about that bad habit of his. Ah well, I'll let him get away with it for now. I'll punish him tomorrow.'_ And besides, I had to admit, he knew just where to scratch.


	13. Chapter 12

_Author's Note- So here's the first little fluffy chapter to show a bit of character development. Also you should probably know that I was kinda drunk while writing this, so I'm sorry if this doesn't turn out as good as the other's. Anyways, read, enjoy and review please. Your support really does help in terms of writing. Also, as I upload this chapter the views are actually on 2222 views... Gotta love those 2s_

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Here I was, sitting on the floor while minding my own business and giving my knives a good sharpening. If they weren't nice and sharp then I wouldn't be able to stab people as easily… I liked stabbing people. Besides, it gave me time to spend to myself and not deal with Drake, as fun as it was to torture him in many creative ways.

As I spent my alone time sharpening my weapons, I was annoyingly interrupted as someone opened the door to my dorm. '_If it's noone important, then I'm testing the sharpness of these knives.' _As the person walked in, I realised it was Drake. '_Damn, so tempted to test them anyway.'_

"Hey Rica, we are going to head out into Vale to see if we can find anything interesting. Want to come along?" Normally I would have immediately rejected the idea, but Drake didn't look like he was going to accept 'No' as a perfectly reasonable answer.

"I don't even have a choice in the matter, do I?"

"Not really." I began to seriously think about using him as a test subject for my knives, for making me participate in this social torture I was about to go through.

"Do I atleast get to take Stabby with me?" I asked, twirling one of my knives around my fingers.

Drake gave me an odd look before questioning me. "Really? That's what you call your weapon? Stabby?"

"What? It's short, straight to the point and represents what it's best at, stabbing people."

"What is it with you and stabbing people?"

"I don't know, it just makes me feel warm and cozy inside." I said, while trying to feign a sweet and innocent smile. After a few seconds of Drake raising his eyebrows at me in disbelief, I soon dropped the facade and reverted back to my trademark grin. "And it's pretty damn fun."

"You have problems."

* * *

The day of shopping had gone past uneventfully, to my dismay. However, it was now night time and every had gone to their beds to retire for the day. My teammates were already fast asleep at this time of night and I was currently lying wide awake, looking at the time on the scroll that I had been provided since joining Beacon. In half an hour, it would be midnight and the start of a day I would rather just forget about. I sighed as I realised that I wasn't going to be falling asleep anytime soon and picked myself up from the floor. Even though there was a bed for me to sleep in, it always felt weird to feel a soft mattress under my body and a warm blanket over the top of me. So I preferred to sleep on the ground, just like I had for my whole life. Though I would occasionally take the blanket with me if it was particularly cold.

I quietly left the dorm and began to make my way to my little area of solitude, the rooftops. Unfortunately for me, the rooftops had recently become occupied by a pair of students who had begun late night training hours. On a few occasions I had used my semblance to find a nice little viewpoint where they wouldn't notice me so I could watch the blonde haired boy get his ass handed to him over and over again. I had often been amused by the boy's poor attempts to match his red-headed partner, but I also watched his partner's fighting style as carefully as I could. We had been pitted against each other in a few training bouts, only for me to lose each and every fucking time, except for once where I managed to get a lucky blow in and disarm her of her pesky little shield. Apparently she was the consecutive champion fighter in a different part of Vytal. Though as I watched their fights, I realised she had one hilarious little weak point. She had the complete and utter hots for that idiot blonde boy. It was so painfully obvious that I had, on more than one occasion, been tempted to just yell at her and say, "Just tell him you want to fuck him already!"

But as I reached the rooftops, I was lucky enough to find that there was no sign of the two partners. I walked up to the edge of the rooftops and sat down with my legs dangling the edge. Heights still managed to terrify me to no end, but for some reason I couldn't help but feel free up here, where there was no one to interrupt or distract me. I begun to keep watch on my scroll as it slowly counted down towards midnight.

'_10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…'_

"Happy Birthday Rica."

I quickly turned my head around to see my white haired partner standing behind me with a small cupcake in hand. "What the hell are you doing here Drake? And how the fuck did you know that today is my birthday?"

"Firstly, I'm here to give you a little two person birthday party and secondly, Ozpin told me. Don't ask me how he knows, I never bothered to ask."

I sighed at Drake's response. '_How did Ozpin find out and why the hell would he tell Drake?'_ I focused my attention back to Drake before saying, "Ok, so what? What's the point of all of this Drake? What make's you think I give a shit about it being my birthday? I haven't even thought about it since my brother died."

"You obviously care about it if you went to the rooftops on your own just to sit and watch the time countdown till your special 18th. I just thought that maybe after all those years of having nobody to acknowledge your birthday, it might help to have someone be there to give you a quick little celebration, as tiny and short membered as it is. Anyway's want your cupcake?" Drake asked, while handing it to me. I took the cupcake and saw that it was an ordinary chocolate cupcake with red velvet icing. I took a bite about out of it only to find out that it actually tasted pretty damn good.

"Mmm, where did you get this?" I said while still eating a chunk of the cupcake.

For some odd reason, Drake began to rub the back of his head in an awkward manner. "Oh, well uh… I actually made it myself."

"Oh really, you made this?" I asked, raising my eyebrow, not believing him for a second.

"Ok, lets just say that the cafeteria isn't exactly in the cleanest of conditions at the moment." I began to laugh at the mayhem that Drake must've caused to make this little, delicious cupcake. "Anyway, moving on. I got you a bit of a present." I began to look at him in curiosity as I waited for him to show me. "Hold out your arm."

I did as he asked, though I was confused as to what he was going to do. I soon found out though, as he pulled out an object from his pocket. It was a shiny silver bracelet, nothing special except for a small engraving on it. It was an insignia showing two knives overlapping each other, almost as if they were clashing against one another.

'_Simple, straight to the point and symbolises my favourite hobby of stabbing people. Wow… I guess Drake actually does know a bit about me.'_

Drake put the bracelet around my arm and tied it against my arm. I couldn't figure out why but I began to smile. Not a cruel grin or a sarcastic smirk, but a genuinely happy smile. I don't know why I did it but I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, before standing up and walking back to our dorm. I didn't miss the rapidly growing blush on Drake's face however and quickly reverted to a more natural smirk. "Thank you Drake" I said as I made my way to the rooftop entrance. "Anyway, you now know that my birthday is the 7th of March. When's yours?"

"November 14th."

"I'll have to keep that in mind then."


	14. Chapter 13

_Author's Note- So here's chapter 13, where we finally get to see a little bit of Xochi and Gael, and some more Rica and Drake progression. Xochi and Gael will, for now on, actually be making regular appearances in the story for now on. Sorry that it took so long, but the who Drake/Rica story arc really did get rid of a lot of screen time for Gael and Xochi. Also, there will be one more fluffy chapter left before I start to get into the next major story arc, where things will really be getting underway. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter and _

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**Chapter 13**

It was a Saturday morning and I was currently at the cafeteria, placing a few small pieces of meat on my plate. I walked to a table and began to slowly eat my food. My faunus traits and old lifestyle had made me a naturally light sleeper, so I was always one of the first few students to arrive at the cafeteria every morning. Much unlike Drake, who seemed to almost worship sleeping in.

As I slowly began to eat my food, the doors opened and I saw two familiar looking people grabbing food and then walking slowly towards me. "Hey Rica," the guy with the robotic limbs said.

I looked at them with a slight look of confusion before asking them, "Who are you guys again? You look familiar but I can't remember your names."

The black haired girl, who was wearing a poncho, facepalmed. "We are on your team Rica, how can you not remember us?"

I looked at them with an odd look. "How long have you guys been here?"

"We've been here for the entire two months that you've been here."

"Then why don't I remember you?", I asked before another question popped into my head. "And why are you wearing a fucking poncho?"

"Really? You're biggest concern is my clothing?"

"Actually my biggest concern is… Ok yeah, why are you wearing a fucking poncho?"

"Because I like wearing ponchos."

"That is the worst item of clothing you could possibly have in combat, so I'll repeat. WHY! ARE YOU WEARING! A FUCKING PONCHO!"

"What is your problem with ponchos?"

"They are stupid, ugly and can get get you killed in combat."

"Weren't we talking about how you forgot about us even though we have been here the whole time?" Robot guy asked, interrupting our argument.

"Ok, fine. So who are you then?" I asked, moving past the girl's horrible clothing of choice.

"I'm Gael", Robot Boy said.

"Ok, well your new name is Robot Boy."

"Please don't call me that."

I just simply shrugged with a grin on my face. "Too late."

"Dammit."

"Anyways, so what's your name, poncho lady?"

"It's Xochi and don't even think about nicknaming me 'Poncho Lady'."

"Ok. Sure thing, Miss Illogical." I replied, only to have Xochi facepalm again.

"Please no."

"Anyway, nice meeting you guys I guess. I'm going to go sharpen my stabbing knives." I said before finishing my meal and leaving for the roof tops.

I was sitting on this roof for the last 30 minutes just playing around with my knives and sharpening them and stuff. It started to get boring so I opted to think about how I could kill the next person that walked out of the building. Funnily enough, it was Drake.

'_Where the hell is he going?'_

I decided to follow him around, out of boredom and curiosity and quickly began to consider how I was going to catch up with him. The stairs would take too long but jumping off a roof wasn't exactly my idea of fun. I heard the door behind me that lead back into the building and I turned around to see Professor Bitch walking towards me.

"Nope." I said before jumping off the building.

'_I really shouldn't have blown up her front door.'_

As I was about to hit the ground, I activated my aura and absorbed most of the shock from landing. I began to puke my guts out as I landed, having not gotten used to heights yet. After I calmed myself enough to stop vomiting, I began to look around to see that Drake was heading towards an airship that transported people between Beacon and Vale. I activated my semblance and began to run towards the airship as fast as possible before the doors closed. As Drake got inside the ship, I noticed the doors starting to close and I began to quicken my pace even more. At the last moment I managed to make a dive for the ship and narrowly managed to make it just in time as the doors closed. Luckily, I had activated my semblance beforehand and Drake was completely clueless that I was in the ship with him… and I didn't have to pay. I considered deactivating my semblance and questioning Drake on what he was doing, but I decided against it after I realised that he would probably try to avoid the question… and I would have to pay.

Around 20 minutes had gone past before the ship finally arrived in Vale. Drake quickly got off the ship and began to head towards the markets. As he began to gain some distance from me, I deactivated my semblance and began to tail him. Thankfully, my semblance could be maintained for long periods of time as long as I stayed still or moved very slowly. It was constant movement that made my semblance run out quickly.

I followed Drake as he walked through the market area and looked around at the shops, seemingly looking for a specific store. He eventually stopped at one store in particular and entered it. I walked around the corner of the shop and began to wait for him to exit the shop. After a few minutes of waiting, I saw Drake walk out of the store with a massive bouquet of roses.

'_Why the hell would he need roses?' _I asked in my head as I watched him start walking towards a more secluded part of Vale. After an hour or so of tailing Drake, we were finally near the outskirts of Vale and I was kind of surprised to see that he was approaching a large house. I activated my semblance and began to inspect the large house. It looked completely out of shape and close to being a near wreck of a home. However, instead of entering the house, Drake began to circle around the back of the house where there appeared to be a large backyard. It was when I started to get a better view of the backyard that my eyes widened in surprise.

The backyard was filled to the brim with gravestones. I saw Drake walking to each and every gravestone placing a rose on each one. He eventually managed to place a rose on all of them, except for three certain gravestones that were placed right in the middle of the backyard. As I slowly approached close enough to see the names on the remaining three gravestones, I realised exactly who they were.

'_Ethaniel Knight, I'm guessing the father.'_

'_Gina Knight, the mother.'_

The two gravestones of what I assumed to be Drake's parents were respectively on the left and right hand sides. The last one in the middle however, I could only assume must have been a sister as the name wrote. '_Jayde Knight.'_

As Drake knelt in front of the three gravestones, I heard him doing something that I hadn't expected from him. He began to start singing while he placed a rose on each of the gravestones.

'_To your grave I spoke  
__Holding a red, red rose  
__Gust of freezing cold air  
__Whispers to me you're gone  
__Spent a lifetime of holding on  
__Just to let go  
__I guess I'll spend another lifetime  
__Searching for a new hope'_

I watched as he sung the lyrics to what seemed to be an almost haunting song, before he broke down and began to cry. As he sobbed in front of his dead family, I deactivated my semblance and began to approach my partner. "This may sound cold hearted Drake but you need to move on."

He turned around to see me standing directly behind him. "Move on? Everything I ever cared for is gone because of one person's own selfish desires and you expect me to just move on?" He got up from his knees and faced me as he asked me the question.

"Yes."

As I answered him, he began to look at me in anger before asking me another question. "And what about you? Did you move on from your brother's death? No, you went out and killed everyone who was responsible for his death! So what makes you think that you can just tell me to move on?!"

"Because you'll just end up being exactly like me if you don't. I went out and got revenge and what did I get out of it? A life that was no longer worth living for, a cruel view of the world, and a life of loneliness. Don't try to end up like I did or else you'll find that there's no longer any reason to continue living."

I was expecting Drake to yell at me, to attack me, or even storm off away from me. I was always horrible at trying to comfort people. What I didn't expect Drake to do was to pull me into a hug and start crying into my shoulder. And yet, that's exactly what he did. I didn't try to resist him or even back away. I just let him cry into my shoulder, as he mourned his family.

'_Was this what I was like when my brother died?'_

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_Additional Author's Note- I hope you guys enjoyed and if you're curious as to what the song that Drake sung was, it is called 'A New Hope' by Broken Iris. Amazing song that you should all give a listen to._


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